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banausic

[buh-naw-sik, -zik]
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adjective
  1. serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical: architecture that was more banausic than inspired.
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Origin of banausic

1835–45; < Greek banausikós, equivalent to bánaus(os) artisan + -ikos -ic
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for banausic

Historical Examples

  • The burghers began to tune the melodies of a new music: a banausic artisan song.

    Women of the Teutonic Nations

    Hermann Schoenfeld

British Dictionary definitions for banausic

banausic

adjective
  1. merely mechanical; materialistic; utilitarian
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Word Origin

C19: from Greek banausikos for mechanics, from baunos forge
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for banausic

adj.

"merely mechanical," coined 1845 from Greek banausikos "pertaining to mechanics," from banausos "artisan, mere mechanical," hence (to the Greeks) "base, ignoble;" perhaps literally "working by fire," from baunos "furnace, forge" (but Klein dismisses this as folk etymology and calls it "of uncertain origin").

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper